An Ordinary Day
by ooihcnoiwlerh
Summary: Oneshot drabble.  Leela's thoughts one particular morning


I do not own Futurama, the brainchild of Matt Groening. In addition to this, I'm making adjustments to the amount of time that has passed from the start of the show to when the story takes place (roughly around the sixth season, minus ITWGY) from 3010 to around 3008. All right…that about settles it.

An Ordinary Day

"_I've waited eight years to do that."_

"_Was it worth the wait?"_

"_It was _so_ worth the wait."_

Get up at six a.m. to go for a run followed by a visit to the gym or the martial arts studio. Take a shower while using the same generic shampoo and soap. Put on the same clothes. Eat the same breakfast and feed Nibbler the same forty-pound can of snouts and animal byproducts, walk the same route with him to work by nine. Every day that she wasn't on an overnight mission. For eight years. And then this.

She couldn't quite figure out what was going on the first few moments she was awake, except that she was naked and while Nibbler wasn't around, she could feel the weight of someone, not something, snoring in the bed, one arm looped around her, pulling her back against his bare chest. Leela started and turned for a fraction of a second, ready to take down whichever intruder thought it would be funny to play sleep-over, and then she saw the thick shock of red hair and she slumped back against the headboard, watching him. She hadn't woken him up.

"_Fry, what's wrong? I thought you wanted this."_

"_Oh, god, Leela, believe me, I do. I've wanted this as long as I've known you but…I mean, face it: I might not be any good. You might get disappointed."_

"_Fry, look at me. Look at me. I haven't had sex in nearly seven years, and that was with an alien who couldn't morph his lower anatomy correctly. You won't disappoint me."_

She heard Nibbler keening outside the door, which on all other nights she kept open in case he wanted to sleep next to her pillow. Her little binge-eating darling that sufficed as a stuffed animal to help her sleep. She glanced at the clock. It was nine a.m. She would've fed him by now, but right now she couldn't bring herself to get out of bed. She looked back at Fry, who now lay sprawled on the other side of the bed in an ungainly manner. Sometimes when talking to him or witnessing yet another of his antics, it was hard to remember that by now he was a grown man of thirty, but at the moment he looked the part. He looked…normal. Refreshingly so. He didn't have a perfect body, though he had withstood a great deal of injuries over the past several years and bore more than a few scars scattered across his body. She had asked and he had explained them all. He carried a little pudge in the midsection and, having been denied the advantage of growing up with genetic modification, he wasn't as well-endowed as some thirty-first century men. She couldn't care less.

_He was insatiable, hands and mouth exploring wherever they found purchase, and enjoyed every discovery he made about her body. "You're so beautiful."_

Leela pulled down the sheets to look at the largest scar, from the stinger that had skewered Fry the day he stepped in front of a giant qeen bee, ready without hesitation to give his life up for hers. He'd risked his life for her numerous times before. She knew that he would be willing to do so again. It used to seem almost silly to her that he would be willing to stand up and give his life to save hers. Naïve. Cute. With his personality at all other times, she'd had trouble taking him seriously when it counted. She trailed her fingertips along the scar. She wouldn't take it so lightly anymore.

There were so many things that had held her back, so many doubts. He was always going to have a poor attention span. He was never going to be terribly bright. She wasn't sure he could withstand a real relationship, had dismissed him so often because she was sure he wasn't serious, or if he was it would fade. And then after eight years she gave him the benefit of the doubt when they started dating.

No one had ever made her feel so _wanted, _so _desirable_ when she finally exposed herself, and it had seemed so unfamiliar to the point of confusion, at least at first.

"_Why are you staring? It's nothing you haven't seen before. Remember? At the nude beach planet?" Leela wrung her hands. She stepped back, nervous, as Fry slowly took in everything, mouth open, wide eyes traveling top to bottom and back, eventually, to her face. Then he stepped forward, wrapped one hand around the back of her neck, and kissed her, one hand traveling down her back, along her hips to press against his._

"_Because I'm finally allowed to stare."_

It had been just over five months from their first date. She knew that five months was a long time to wait, but if he'd waited for eight years for just any romantic recognition from her, another five months was more than fair. She had needed to be sure.

Fry stirred and groaned a little as he awoke. Leela smiled to herself as he looked disoriented for a moment, wondering where he was, and then saw her.

"Good morning, Fry."

He looked as if he had won the lottery, grinning, looking a little stunned. He so clearly wanted her approval, wanted to ask again if she had liked it. "Leela! Uh, good morning. You sleep well?"

Leela grinned back at him. "I did. The best sleep I've had in a long time." She leaned over and cupped the side of Fry's face against her hand and kissed him, then pulled back. "So, would you like any coffee? I was about to go make some."

Fry silently nodded. Leela slid out of bed and pulled a bathrobe and her jaclomator around her as she went out, laughing as Nibbler chirped and bounded around her ankles, chattering away to be fed. Every day had started to seem so ordinary, and there was no strong reason that this had to be extraordinary. People woke up in bed next to someone new all the time, a start to an ordinary day. She saw there was a message from Dr. Farnsworth, undoubtedly a reprimand for not being at work yet. It happened to other people all the time. Life was simple, and that was fine.

She was just happy.

"_Let's go to my place."_

"_Really? You mean it?"_

"_Yeah. I think it's time we finally went for it. I'm ready if you are."_

"_I've been ready for years."_


End file.
